Bahrain gear up for qualifiers

BAHRAIN’S senior men’s national football team continued their training last night ahead of their upcoming qualifiers this week for the Fifa World Cup 2022 and the AFC Asian Cup 2023.

The Bahrainis will Iraq on Thursday at the National Stadium in Riffa and then fly to Phnom Penh for an away qualifier against Cambodia on September 10.

Head coach Helio Sousa has been supervising their practices at the Muharraq Club stadium over the past few days.

As part of the lead-up to Thursday’s match, the nationals entered an indoor camp yesterday at Downtown Rotana Hotel in Manama.

Bahrain are in Group ‘C’ for the joint-qualifiers along with Iraqi and Cambodia, as well as with Iran and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, three of the six senior men’s national team players who were cut from the final list for the qualifiers have been called up to train with Bahrain’s under-23 Olympic football team.

Mohammed Marhoon and Sayed Hashem Issa from Riffa and Ahmed Al Sherooqi from Muharraq joined the Olympic squad on Sunday night. Olympic team head coach Samir Ben Chammam had already named a list of 24 players for training, and the new additions extend the roster to 27.

The under-23s are preparing for a pair of friendly matches against their counterparts from Iraq, scheduled for Friday and Monday in Bahrain.

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